DALLAS — Vinson & Elkins is exiting the public finance business as its entire 14-member team of attorneys moves to Bracewell & Giuliani, the law firms said.
“This is a very consensual deal on both sides,” V&E managing partner Joseph Dilg said Tuesday. “It should be a fairly seamless transition.”
Houston-based Vinson & Elkins ranked 18 nationwide among bond counsel year to date, according to Thomson Reuters. It was the third largest bond counsel in the Southwest region by volume in 2010 but is planning fewer lines of business, Dilg said. The decision to allow the team to move to Bracewell followed several weeks of discussion, Dilg said.
“We’re delighted that the entire group is staying together,” Dilg said.
V&E partners Ben A. Brooks III, W. Glenn Opel and Barron F. Wallace will lead Bracewell’s Texas-based public finance group beginning in mid-January, the firm said.
“It is anticipated that other lawyers will join them as counsel and associates,” the firm said.
The public finance team will be working in Bracewell’s offices in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Washington, D.C.
“We view this as a tremendous opportunity to align the strengths Bracewell already has in its government relations practice with our group of public finance lawyers,” Brooks said in a prepared statement.
The new partners include: Charles L. Almond, Cristy C. Edwards, Jonathan Kelly Frels, Steven H. Gerdes, R. Todd Greenwalt, and Wallace in Houston; Elizabeth Rippy Bowes, Opel, and Victoria N. Ozimek in Austin; Brooks, Robert R. Collins III, Jonathan C. Leatherberry, and George G. Rodriguez in Dallas; and Paul Maco in Washington.
Vinson & Elkins ranked behind McCall Parkhurst & Horton and Fulbright & Jaworski as Southwest bond counsel last year. Since 2009, the 14-member V&E group has completed more than 655 transactions, totaling $31.1 billion in issuances, Bracewell said. They have also represented many national and regional securities firms in regulatory, enforcement and conflict dispute matters related to tax-exempt securities.
“They have a strong connection to the northeast through their work with the securities industry and will mesh well with our Texas- and New York-based finance practices,” partner Rudolph Giuliani said in a prepared statement.
Brooks has served as bond counsel for numerous public issuers and has drafted legislation affecting public entity financing.
Wallace has experience in traditional municipal finance and represents investment banking firms as underwriters counsel in bond and interest rate swap transactions.
Maco focuses on federal securities and commodities law, corporate governance and public finance. He is a former Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Municipal Securities and a former attorney in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and the SEC’s Office of General Counsel.
Opel’s principal area of practice is financial institutions and finance law. He has served as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel and letter of credit bank counsel in municipal finance transactions.
Another 15 attorneys and staff from Vinson eventually are expected to also make the move to Bracewell, including the so-called “dean” of Texas bond counsel Ray Hutchison, husband of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
